What the Oath for New U.S. Citizens Says

Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues in this week’s Saturday Essay that the application process for U.S. citizenship should attempt to filter out would-be citizens who are ideologically opposed to the United States. Ms. Hirsi Ali took the oath to become a U.S. citizen on April 25, with 1,834 other men and women in Boston, just 10 days after another new citizen – Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — allegedly carried out an attack in the same city with his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Every naturalized citizen must recite what’s known as the Oath of Allegiance at an official ceremony before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issues a Certificate of Naturalization. Here’s the full text of the oath:

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

Candidates for citizenship are allowed to take a modified oath under certain circumstances — if they “unable or unwilling” to promise to bear arms because of religious beliefs or to take the oath with the words “on oath” and “so help me god.”

We have dual citizenship because Americans also need to live in, and become citizens of other countries where they live, and we would not want them to have to give up their birthright in order to, for example, own their own homes or avoid legal discrimination where they live. We are not serfs anymore, property of a single king, sworn to a single king. It is entirely practical to be loyal to both Israel and the United States, or to Ireland and the United States, or to all three. If a conflict becomes irreconcilable, it may be necessary to surrender one citizenship, but for most countries, most of the time, it's not a problem. Also, I know that - unlike the US - Ireland does not require any feudal-style oath of loyalty; it simply requires its citizens to obey the law.

3:48 pm May 19, 2013

Faithfulee wrote :

There should be penalties for not putting the US law before the law of any other country. Expulsion should be the most likely and should be so described in the Pledge.

This is most important with respect to religious law. This is not to say that religious law isn't better than those in our constitution, but that one must work within our constitution to change any US law.

This is most important with respect to Muslims. Most of them, even in the US could take that pledge. The only ones that can do so with confidence and trust are Moderate American Muslims. It is these Muslims who have responsibility to bring America to believe that Islam is a religion of peace.